Bahrain GP: Practice notes - Mercedes

NEWS STORY20/04/2012

The first two practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix took place today at the Sakhir International Circuit. The team completed a total of 106 laps in the two practice sessions today - nearly two race distances. The focus was on comparing and understanding tyre performance in much hotter conditions than in China last week. Six Mercedes-Benz powered drivers finished in the top seven in P1; and four in the top six in the afternoon session.

Nico Rosberg: "That was a good start to the weekend, and whilst it's nice to be quickest today, we know that doesn't count. The most important thing still is to improve our race pace. For the moment, it looks reasonable but we need to analyse where we are on high fuel levels compared to our competitors and draw our conclusions. The conditions are really tough out there, so the race will be quite demanding from the tyre perspective."

Michael Schumacher: "We started well today, and our long runs are satisfying as well as our overall times. Unfortunately I could not complete my fast lap properly due to traffic. We will have to see what the outcome will be tomorrow and on Sunday as the tyres go away very quickly. You really have to stay within the limit of them, that's going to be the main issue. Let's see what we can make out of it but the start of the weekend has definitely not been too bad for us."

Ross Brawn: "We had a very solid day of practice here today, completing some good work on both low and high fuel. We made some progress over the day with the set-up of the car, there were no issues and, all in all, it was a very reasonable day. We've done our homework and know what our priorities are, so that should enable us to work out what we want to tomorrow."

Norbert Haug: "We had a pretty good first day learning quite a lot about the big challenge of how to use the tyres in the best possible way and make them last during the necessary number of laps in the race. There was more grip in the second session which helped. We still have room for improvement but I think our team has a good understanding of what will be required here on Sunday. Having said that, it is much too early to judge where we are compared to our competitors."